Tempo Recordings.

Good-time Girl

"I'll never be an angel/I'll never be a saint, it's true/I'm too busy surviving/Whether it's heaven or hell." That self-pitying piffle gets "Bedtime Stories" off to a less-than-promising start-Madonna the iron-maiden "artist" is bad news. Madonna the auteur of pop escapism, however, can be a good time. And "Bedtime Stories" is mostly just that, a welcome shift from the strident shock tactics of the 1992 "Erotica." Madonna is at her most relaxed and alluring on the new disc, its romantic tone set by the breezy, hip-hop-inflected balladry of the first single, "Secret." The laid-back funk grooves, supplied by a bevy of R&B hitmakers (Dallas Austin, Nellee Hooper, Babyface), allow Madonna to make the most of her limited voice, and she sounds shrill only on the self-serving "Survival" and "Human Nature." Outside of "The Immaculate Collection" singles retrospective, "Bedtime Stories" is Madonna's most irresistible guilty pleasure.